Week 26. "Moonbather" 30"x40" oil on canvas

Color, line and texture equal infinite possibility. With each painting I do there are things about it I love and there are other things that, although not bad, I would change were I to do the painting again. There are so very many good and usually surprising things that have happened in the work I've posted here this year. I say this with all humility because all of the best things, in my opinion, just happened. I didn't plan them. The challenge is to then take those good things and build on them. This is not easy to do. With infinite possibility comes an infinite number of results. Hopefully those results are positive. "Moonbather" is a "building on the good things" painting. It draws heavily on previous paintings like "Romeo and Juliet", "Summer's Cauldron" and "Electra". I definitely broke some accepted "rules of art" in it. With impish delight I decided to just totally ignore the light source which should be the moon. Instead I gave the bather her own light emanating from within her. Also, the moon-bather's hair splits the painting almost exactly in half. Separating a composition into equal halves is a big no-no. But guess what... it works. So much for rules.

Week 25. "Akhenaten and Nefertiti In Their Garden At Amarna" 30"x40" oil on canvas

“Indulge not thyself in the passion of anger; it is whetting a sword to wound thine own breast, or murder thy friend.” -Akhenaten

Are these truly the words of a pharaoh? Those mighty kings who wished to be worshiped and treated like gods? Akhenaten, the first monotheist in recorded history. Akhenaten, over-thrower of tradition and builder of a new city. Akhenaten and his beautiful wife, Nefertiti.

“To be satisfied with a little, is the greatest wisdom; and he that increaseth his riches, increaseth his cares; but a contented mind is a hidden treasure, and trouble findeth it not.” -Akhenaten

Week 24. "A Fourth Fool" aka "Breathe fool! Breathe!" 24"x30" oil on canvas

This is the fourth installment of the fool series starring me, myself and I as the biggest fools anyone ever did see. The original idea for this one was that the fool would be staring up out of picture into light so bright that he really couldn't see. It could have been called "Don't stare at the sun, fool!" What happened was that while I was taking the reference photographs I kept sneezing (because, like the fool I am, I was staring at the sun behind the camera). I was holding those sneezes in! "I can do it!" I told myself. "This is the longest ten second auto timer on any camera, ever!" I thought to myself. One half of a millionth of a second before a sneeze forced it way out the camera finally took a picture. I looked at it. I liked it. I used it. And when I stepped back from the canvas I saw a fool, not out in the brutal sun but holding his breath under the water. He's not too far under the water because the sun is still powerful enough to blind him. He looks like he's in about three or four feet of water tops. So maybe the really really real title of this painting is, "If you think your drowning, stand up! Fool.".

Week 23. "Wisdom and Knowledge" 36"x48" oil on canvas

First let me say thanks to all of those of you who have been taking time to follow along as I post a new painting every week. Thank you also for the supportive feedback. It is truly wonderful to know that my work is being seen and appreciated. Finishing a painting every week is not easy (especially when the canvas is 36"x48", very daunting at the beginning of the week) but I must say that I'm enjoying it. One thing I'm learning as I push myself to get the work done is that there's no time to wait to be inspired. It's possible that inspiration may eventually strike while I'm sitting on the sofa waiting for lightning to strike. But if I just get to work, feeling inspired or no, I realize several hours later that the inspiration was there all along.

As to this weeks painting I can only say that it's nice when wisdom and knowledge work together but they are by no means the same thing. Wisdom is generated from within and knowledge is found without. Wisdom works just fine by itself. But knowledge without wisdom, as a Nigerian proverb has it, is like water in the sand.

“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.”Socrates

True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance. -- Akhenaton

My embodiment of wisdom is a woman, accepting and pregnant with ideas. Knowledge is there, behind her, represented by three figures that could be some sort of clerics or scholars. They are important, but wait, watch out boys! Bow your heads when wisdom is appears.

Week 22. "A Third Fool" aka "The 'I Do Whatever I Want, Fool!' Fool" 18"x24" oil on canvas

Someday, when the funds are available, I will have a model. And to that model I will say "Here, put on a jester's hat and a velvet jacket and then make hysterically emotive faces". Until that time the only model I have who's available 24/7 and poses happily for no $ is yours truly. And that, my friends, is the age old story of why there are so many self-portraits in the world.


I had a lot of fun exploring this image digitally before putting paint to canvas. It really helped me understand the composition better and allowed me to see many different color schemes without having to commit to any one of them. Here's the digital version of "A Third Fool".

Is there a greater fool than he who talks more than listens? Probably not. A jester's cap is a facetious replica of a king's crown. A jester was often the one who could make the king laugh at himself and still keep his head. A jester helped the king listen to opposing points of view. We are all kings over our own thoughts and actions. Too much talking and too little listening is a sure way to sink a kingdom.

Week 21. "Summer's Cauldron" 30"x40" oil on canvas

I think one of the hardest things to do, not just as an artist, but in life itself is to be mentally free to do what truly brings one joy. It's not easy to take all the advertising, opinions of peers and acquaintances and, worst of all, the "that's how it's always been done" mentality and throw it out the window. Then truly ask one's self, what brings me joy? Well, while doing this painting I may have come as close as I've ever come to just doing what brings me joy when I'm painting. What? Creating art is not always a joyful experience? No. It can be excruciating. Especially when plagued with thoughts of is it hip enough? is it now enough? is it original enough? is painting dead? The art that I'm in love with comes from within. To let that art out I must ignore all the art history, art contemporary, pop, shock, angst, post-this and neo-that. This week, I tell myself, I will work in joyous equanimity. I will shut the door on the art flavor of the month, May something, 2010.

I envision a pregnant couple taking a summer's rest on a bed of vegetation that is somehow reminiscent of a night sky. It is textured and deep and yet close and intimate. There is a profound stillness and but I hear the buzzing of bees coming and going and coming. I see it in this moment of now-ness and lay it down on the canvas in the next. I work, I float, I'm timeless, I'm gone...

Week 20. "Adam And Eve" 30"x40" oil on canvas

Oh Adam! Oh Eve! Oh phooey! This painting is an ode to spring. It is an appreciation of every single time two people have felt love and/or attraction for each other. Original sin? Again I say, phooey! An Edenic state of mind is always possible. Enough about what I think this painting means. You decide for yourself. I'd rather talk about trying to show paintings in the digital age.
Recently I was following a juried art competition sponsored by a group based in Brooklyn, NY with celebrity judges and all. The theme was self-portraits and variations of self-portraits and was open to any medium (painting, sculpture, photography, etc...). To enter this contest an artist would submit a digital image of the art via the internet. Nine out of ten winners in this competition ended up being photographers. Stunning. Why such a ridiculously high percentage of photographers? One reason may have been that seven out of those nine winners were women who had submitted self-portraits of themselves without shirts on. But there is another answer I find is worth paying attention to. That is that when submitting art via internet your art is being seen exactly as it's meant to be seen if it's original form is a digital image. However, any work that exists in the real world (meaning it exists outside of a hard drive) will have to have a photo taken of it and hopefully represents the original somewhat accurately. In other words the judges were judging the photography in a state in which it was meant to be seen but were judging real world art from a photo which is only a poor replica of the original. In any art competition where digital art and real world art is being judged side by side on a computer screen the real world art is going to come up short. Lesson learned. That being said...
When you look at a photo of a painting online you are seeing a version or resemblance of the painting, not the painting itself. I know this seems obvious but the reality is that much of what makes painting as a medium so wonderful (like texture and nuances of color) get lost when an image of it is captured with a digital camera. So this week I'm going to share some detail images of Adam and Eve providing close up views of few different parts. Please click on the images below to enlarge.